CR5 Issue 159 August 2018

History
What on Earth? The History of Surrealism
Surrealism was a radical philosophical
movement that was born,
seemingly out of nowhere, around
a century ago. It had an enormous
impact on our modern culture,
encompassing not only art and
literature but film, photography,
music, political thought and even
everyday objects.
Surrealism evolved in the 1920s
from Dadaism – a politically-based
art movement that was a reaction
to the First World War. It also
reflected the development during
this time of psychology with its
concepts of psychoanalysis and
the subconscious. Surrealist art
and literature consequently used
dream-like states and seemingly
out-of-place but symbolic images
to give new interpretation to the
world.
The word ‘surrealism’ was
invented by the writer Guillaume
Apollinaire in 1917. The term
was subsequently taken up by
the founder of the Surrealist
movement, the French poet André
Breton (1896-1966). Breton developed
a method of artistic expression
called ‘automatism’, which
involved writing automatically
from the subconscious, enabling
the artist to tap into the furthest
reaches of the imagination.
In his first Manifesto of Surrealism,
published in 1924, Breton outlined
the idea that Surrealism was a way
for the arts to encourage political
change as it forced people to
‘think outside the box’. His
theories subsequently attracted
many followers including Dali
(1904-1989), the Spanish painter
Joan Miro (1894-1983), German
artist Max Ernst (1891-1976), filmmaker
Luis Bunuel (1900-1983),
American photographer Man
Ray (1890-1976) and the Belgian
artist Rene Magritte (1898-1967).
Surrealist artworks are often
disturbing and filled with strange
and symbolic images, juxtaposing
objects which would not be found
together in real life. For example,
Dali’s well-known painting The
Persistence of Time shows giant
clocks melting in an imaginary
landscape. Perhaps less familiar
but equally striking is German
artist Meret Oppenheim’s Object
painted in 1936, which depicts a
cup, saucer and spoon made of
fur.
The technique of trompe l’oeil
(trick of the eye) also featured in
Surrealist art, as in Dali’s clever
Swans Reflecting Elephants which
shows swans swimming on a lake
and the swans’ reflections as
elephants below it.
As with the Art Nouveau and
Art Deco movements before it,
Surrealism spread its imaginative
tendrils into other creative areas.
Surrealist photography was taken
up with enthusiasm by photographers
including Man Ray, who
took the memorable shot of a
naked woman with two scroll-like
‘F holes’ painted on either side of
the small of her back so that her
body resembled a violin.
Surrealist films made an appearance,
the most famous and
controversial at the time being
the 1929 Un Chien Andalou (An
Andalusian Dog) by Luis Bunuel
and Dali, which features hands
coming out of a wall and a
By Catherine Rose
woman having her eyeball cut
open with a razorblade! (Dali was
later asked by Alfred Hitchcock to
create a dream sequence for his
film Spellbound in 1945.)
Dali, along with other artists, conceived
Surrealist everyday objects
such as the lobster telephone,
a woman’s hat in the shape of a
stiletto shoe in a collaboration
with the fashion designer Elsa
Schiparelli, and a sofa that was
built to resemble actress Mae
West’s lips.
Although Surrealism was declared
a dead movement by the Second
World War, artists continued to
produce paintings in its style,
such as Magritte’s famous The
Son of Man painted in 1966 (the
year of André Breton’s death)
where a man (Magritte himself),
wearing a 1960s suit and bowler
hat, stands with his face obscured
by a floating apple. The ‘realism’
of the image makes it all the more
striking and is a typical technique
of Surrealist art which is often
three-dimensional in its appearance.
Since the deaths of the original
Surrealist artists, Surrealism’s
legacy has lived on, heavily shaping
the creative arts and thinking
of today. Artists who did not
consider themselves Surrealists
but were clearly influenced by it
include Frida Kahlo and Jackson
Pollock.
Surrealism freed writers and
artists to work directly from their
imaginations and to express their
thoughts, rather than what they
could see in front of them, in
ways that had never before been
achieved, except perhaps by the
innovative 16th century artist
Hieronymus Bosch – but that’s
another article!
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